


sixteen hundred and fifty-two steps

by RedPaladin465



Category: Tuck Everlasting - Natalie Babbitt
Genre: Bittersweet, Drabble, Gen, Light Angst, Winnie-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-12 13:32:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15340920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedPaladin465/pseuds/RedPaladin465
Summary: Winne took a deep breath as she dipped her hand in the cool water, letting it flow through her fingers like soft silk. It had been a long road, coming back here.Sixteen hundred and fifty-two steps.





	sixteen hundred and fifty-two steps

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all!
> 
> This is actually an edited re-post of a fic I wrote and posted on FF.net back in 2011 after watching the Tuck Everlasting movie for the first time. I grew up reading and loving the book, but I was so inspired by the movie that I wrote this little drabble. I haven't seen the movie since, but watched it again last night with my mom, and I just had to go back to this fic, edit, and post it. Natalie Babbitt gave me a story I held close to my heart for many years, so here's something small in return :)
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing

If Winnie Foster closed her eyes, she could still remember the feeling of the cool earth beneath her feet. The small fire they lit that night- it spread warmth all through her body, moving to the beat he had created alongside nature's calls. She could still recall the way the chilly water felt as it crashed over the rocks, over the edge, enveloped her entire being, the knowing feeling that she'd be safe even though the weight of what clothes she were wearing was dragging her down. She could remember the spray from the waterfall hitting her face, the light refracting off the water and creating a rainbow, only for them. She could feel the rough boulders underneath her soft, untrained hands as they climbed a tall, rocky monument that overlooked a lush, green valley, the wondrous sight laid out before her. The winds danced, their song a sweet sound in her ear, their touch caressing her face.

Then came his eyes, a beautiful green color, rich as the grass on a warm summer's day. His soft, silky brown hair, tousled by the wind as he ran through the field, whooping and hollering and cheering without a care in the world. The strong set of his jaw and defined cheekbones. His soft, pink lips, the way he talked and the way he smiled, making her feel weightless and alive for the first time in her very sheltered life. His each laugh taught her heart to beat a little bit harder, each mischievous smile taught her to live a little bit more. Without trying very hard, she could remember every word said, every smile, every kiss of the very few- too few- they shared. The way his eyes seemed to twinkle as he threw his head back in laughter. The way his very presence was light-hearted and ethereal, as if he would disappear as soon as you looked away with only soft laughter echoing in the wind, but also as if he was ready to take the world by storm. A soft smile appeared on Winnie's lips as those precious few memories surfaced, bubbling into her mind like a small spring, constantly filling with water.

Opening her eyes, she gently touched the bark of the old oak tree, her fingers running along the skillfully carved 'T.' The small spring at the roots of the tree gurgled and giggled, but never trickling over the edge, a soothing sound.

Winnie, after returning to Tree Gap several years after leaving to see the world with her parents, after learning to boulder and rock climb and dance and go horseback riding, found that the sound of running water was her favorite in the world. She slept soundly through thunderstorms, and one of her favorite memories abroad was of Winnie herself, lying down on a paved walkway in the English countryside as rain poured down on her. She bent over the spring, seeing her reflection inside. Her face seemed sharper, her features a little more defined, but the child that had met the Tucks so long ago- and yet, not long at all- was still there, in the burning embers of confidence in her blue eyes and the strong set of her shoulders. Even after these years, they had never left her. She could see herself changing, recognize Tuck's calm demeanor in her own personality, Mae's gentleness in her own hands, Miles' quiet strength in the set of her jaw, and Jesse's everlasting laughter hidden in the right hand corner of her lips.

Winne took a deep breath as she dipped her hand in the cool water, letting it flow through her fingers like soft silk. It had been a long road, coming back here.

 _Sixteen hundred and fifty-two steps_.

Many times, she turned the question over and over and over in her mind.  _Am I doing the right thing?_

She had come to say goodbye.

Goodbye to this oak tree, goodbye to the spring. Goodbye to her home. Goodbye to Angus and Mae Tuck, and goodbye to Miles and what was left of his family. Goodbye to the toad that would live forever, and goodbye to the woods. Goodbye to Jesse Tuck.

He had promised to come back for her. Remembering his last words, Winnie smiled faintly. _"Winnie Foster! I will love you til the day I die!"_

Jesse Tuck had seen the world in the hundred and four years he had been alive. When she was with him, she could see it, through his eyes- the many things she had never known. Now, she was grown up. She had started making her own way in the world, making her own mark on the wheel that was time, constant in its change. Maybe one day, she'd go to the Eiffel Tower and climb to the top, all sixteen hundred and fifty-two steps (nevermind the elevators. "N _ot with me. You'd take off your shoes and walk up every solitary step._ "). She would look down on the view of Paris and remember her own Paris, her own Eiffel Tower and remember that a seventeen year old boy had once made a promise to her.

_"Winnie Foster!"_

_"Winnie Foster!"_

_"Winnie Foster! I will love you til the day I die!"_

Jesse was never going to die. And he knew that, knew it full well when he shouted those words to her as his family made their way out of town in the middle of the night. Winnie was not going to lie and say that she hadn't wanted to run back to the spring and to drink from it and wait for Jesse's promised return, to run straight into his arms like no time had passed since they frolicked in the fields, jumped into the chilly mountain spring. She wondered and wondered where Jesse and the rest of the Tucks would be, day after day, wondering if she just turned the right corner, there they would be, promises fulfilled, and she could be with them, with him, forever.

_"Winnie...until we're together again, wake up with the dawn."_

It took courage to make a promise and keep it, and it took courage to wait. It took more courage to say goodbye to the one thing you loved the most.

For Winnie Foster, it all started on this summer day, the first day of August. A girl had dreamed for an adventure outside of the suffocating iron walls that kept her enclosed, safe, and sheltered. She ran away into the woods, and met a boy here, drinking from this very spring. His family took her back to their home where she discovered the meaning of family, true friends, love, and most importantly, she would learn later, life. She began to learn how to live. She found what she thought was the grandest adventure of all- immortality. To never grow old, to never be able to die. Now, she knew that living in itself was an awfully big adventure, one that she was ready to undertake.

Her fingers gently traced the 'T' one last time, and her eyes fell upon the spot Jesse had been where she first saw him. Winnie would come back one day, there was no doubt in her mind. Her family still owned the land. And there was no other place she would rather spend eternity, she knew.

She used to think of Jesse as an angel, with his carefree laughter, his beautiful smile, his twinkling eyes. Winnie knew better now. She had seen his imperfections, seen the ways he could fall short, and she had given him her heart, now knowing that all other loves she could have the rest of her very limited life would never be able to compare. And maybe that was okay, she thought. Maybe this was part of the wheel too. Maybe somehow, someway, Jesse would know the very words she couldn't have said back to him that night before he had left Tree Gap. And maybe somewhere, he was watching over her, and someday, when she was gone, they would trade places- she would be the one watching over him, always there, always protecting.

Winnie closed her eyes and made her last promise before she turned around and made her way home.


End file.
